Push-to-talk (“PTT”) is a well known group communication technology that is used in many applications in which there is benefit from a group of individuals being able to hear the same transmissions. Familiar examples include police, fire, rescue, and delivery personnel.
Generally, the number of smartphones that offer group communication capabilities, such as PTT or other push-to-experience (“PTX”) capabilities, is limited. There exist software applications that may be downloaded by a smartphone to provide the smartphone with a group communication capability. Generally, this group communication software application may utilize the touch screen display/user interface of the smartphone. For example, a user may touch or tap an icon on the touch screen to utilize a push-to-talk service. Since the capabilities and optimizations that are used to enable high performance group communications tend to have high battery usage, it is generally beneficial for a user to have the ability to turn off group communication mode when not in use, such as through the software application.
However, the use of a touch screen interface contrasts greatly with a conventional PTT “walkie-talkie” type hard key, which is typically mounted on the side of the communication device. Since smartphones lack a hard key PTT input button, a user must look at the touchscreen in order to push the talk button, which requires two hands and the user's visual attention. This makes smartphone group communication applications less desirable and inappropriate to many users of traditional PTT/PTX communication devices which have a side mounted talk button that can be operated single handedly without a need to look at the device.